It seemed fitting to have the two largest pieces of equipment at the show a couple of booths down from each other. Capacity, horsepower and efficiency have been the focal points for producers and manufacturers with recent model releases.

John Deere brought its new 9RX 830 tractor, boasting 913 peak horsepower, while Rocky Mountain Equipment booth had New Holland’s new Next Generation CR11 combine front and centre with its tried-and-true twin-rotor design.

Even the small pieces of equipment are getting bigger. Flaman had a DJI Agras T50 sprayer drone looming overhead. With a 40-kg spray capacity and able to cover 21 hectares per hour, this drone has grown almost to the size of a small car. The ever-increasing size of equipment brings awe and amusement to the crowded hallways of the show.

A resounding theme throughout the week, though, was the rising cost of technology and aftermarket additions. The list of options on new equipment has seemed to grow exponentially in recent years. When ordering a new seed drill, decisions need to be made on whether to add sectional control, turn compensation, blockage monitors, aftermarket openers, mudscrapers and the list goes on.

All these options make it important to do research, as their functions and improvements need to be evaluated to fit the owner’s operation. They also all come with additional cost — another consideration. CPS brings many of these aftermarket providers into one space, to help the buyer with these in-depth conversations. 

An interesting disparity was the disconnect between global equipment sales reports and territory salespeople at the show. Reports show a declining trend in new equipment sales throughout North America — but in conversation with the associates working many of the booths, sales are stronger than ever. Multiple dealer locations had met their sales goals or had commitments to sell out of available equipment for the coming year.

It may be that the national reports are a broader evaluation of the larger industry, while the more local economy is trending upward — but the disconnect is still very prevalent.

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“The story behind wild oat being one of the biggest grassy weed issues and kochia being one of the biggest broadleaf weed issues, is generally consistent across the board for the Prairie provinces,” says Charles Geddes, an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada weed scientist in Lethbridge.

Both of these weeds are challenging, but Adama Canada says it now has a product that can help growers with wild oats.

At the Crop Production Show, held Jan. 14-16 in Saskatoon, Adama unveiled a new herbicide called Cazado — a dual mode of action product that contains Group 1 and Group 2 molecules.

In its announcement, the company describes the product as a graminicide. In simple terms, it’s a herbicide that attacks grassy weeds.

Its actives are pinoxaden, a Group 1 ACCase inhibitor (a “den” herbicide, separate from the “fops” and “dims” in the same group), and thiencarbazone-methyl, a Group 2 ALS/AHAS inhibitor.

“For graminicides, the only real option (in Canada) has been single-mode-of-action products,” Cornie Thiessen, Adama Canada’s general manager, said during the Crop Production Show.

In December, Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency registered Cazado for use on spring wheat, durum and winter wheat.

The main markets will be spring wheat and durum, but in 2025 Adama is focusing on spring wheat.

“We’re wanting to make sure we have additional years of testing before we’re aggressive in talking about it on durum,” Thiessen says.

It isn’t intended for use in oats or barley because the product can injure those cereals.

Wild oat control

A map on Prairieweeds.com illustrates the wild oat problem in Western Canada. Across Saskatchewan, wild oats with Group 2 resistance can be found throughout the province. Similarly, populations of wild oats are resistant to Group 1 herbicides in many municipalities.

For a grower, sorting out the type of resistance on their farm is difficult.

READ MORE: Maul of the wild

“In some cases, you don’t (know) whether you have Group 1 or Group 2 (resistance). You might have some weeds that are Group 1 resistant and some that are Group 2 resistant,” Thiessen says.

“With this product, you should be able to get could control of the weeds (wild oats) that are Group 1-resistant or Group 2-resistant.”

Growers can use this new post-emergent product in a tank mix with a broadleaf herbicide, in-crop, to control their weeds in spring wheat.

Combining two modes of action into one product was complicated because sometimes two chemistries are adversarial or they don’t “play nice together,” Thiessen says.

Adama partially solved that problem by using canola oil in the formulation.

“Its unique active ingredient mixture and formulation, using canola oil instead of petroleum-based products, not only enhances its effectiveness and proactively delays future onset of herbicide resistance, but also reduces its environmental impact,” Adama’s herbicide portfolio manager Ambrely Ralph says.

A dual-mode product to control wild oats doesn’t mean herbicide resistance is solved.

A percentage of wild oats will have resistance to both Group 1 and Group 2 products. Also, it’s important to follow good agronomic practices, such as a diverse crop rotation, to preserve this sort of technology.

“It doesn’t replace the need for … that holistic approach for managing resistance,” Thiessen says.

Check out all our 2025 Western Canadian Crop Production Show coverage.

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The updated “2.0” version offers what the company says is “enhanced processing power, increased data storage, and improved in-field connection stability that improves seeding, spraying, and harvesting data integration.”

As FieldView product value lead Andria Karstens says, in the time since Drive 1.0 came out in 2016, “a lot of technology has changed. We’ve had some increases in technology when it comes to Bluetooth, processing power and data security.

“We’re able to provide farmers with a better connectivity experience when they’re in the field. That’s a big part of the new hardware, bringing that new technology to market.”

FieldView Drive 2.0 also has improved compatibility, allowing it to communicate with the digital systems of newer equipment. It also allows for a simpler installation in the cab, eliminating the need for some cabling and making use of Bluetooth connectivity.

It can be used to transfer prescription maps to equipment in the field without the need for a thumb drive.

“We can use the drive as our transfer device,” Karstens says. “It makes it easier to get those prescriptions into the cab of the equipment.”

Using FieldView, producers can create their own prescription maps ahead of time as well as generate as-applied maps from in-cab generated data. The system is compatible with most OEM systems, so transferring that data between machines of different brands is now easier.

“Sometimes those (OEM) cloud softwares don’t always talk to each other to move data around,” she adds. “We can use FieldView in the cab in different pieces of equipment to collect data all in one place.

“If you didn’t want to use FieldView hardware, there are other options, such as a data inbox — which basically means you can take the information from your OEM monitors, download it, then upload it into the FieldView cloud.”

There are a few ways FieldView can connect with different pieces of equipment, depending on what data a grower wants to collect, the year of the machine and what kind of GPS monitors are in it.

“If you’re connected into a rate controller, it’s going to automatically map that with what rate you’re putting seed down at and potentially fertilizer too, if you’re mapping that,” says Karstens. “It will paint multiple layers you can toggle between and have a nice visual (map) at the end of the day.”

FieldView is available on an annual $500 per year subscription basis, along with an initial purchase of the hardware. Included in the subscription is access to periodic satellite images taken throughout the growing season.

“On average, you should get an updated image around every two weeks,” says Karstens. “Depending on cloud cover and weather events, that could change. You can drop pins and keep track of things in the field if you wanted to use it for a scouting tool.”

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This year’s show will take place Jan. 9-12 at the World Trade Centre Saskatoon at Prairieland Park. Leigh Ann Hurlburt, ag manager for Prairieland Park, says there is a renewed sense of excitement about the event this year as life has begun to return to normal following the events of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hurlburt says the buzz about this year’s show is reflected in the fact that the number of exhibitors taking part in the event has returned to pre-pandemic levels. More than 300 exhibitors from Western Canada, Ontario and the northern United States will occupy the show’s more than 1,100 exhibition spaces in 2023, and there is once again a lengthy waiting list of potential exhibitors who remain on the outside looking in due to limited space.

Surge in interest

That surge in interest comes as a huge relief for Crop Production Show organizers, who were forced to cancel the event in 2021 due to public health restrictions and then had to contend with the reluctance of some individuals to participate in last year’s event because of lingering public health concerns.

“We have a long list of exhibitors who may not have been able to attend last year who are all making sure they are in the show for this year,” says Hurlburt, who co-ordinates all of the park’s agricultural programming.

“We’re back in business and back to normal. We want to go forward and not worry about COVID. We’ve put COVID behind us and we are moving full steam ahead with everything we do here.”

That sense of renewed enthusiasm for the show also extends to visitors, Hurlburt adds. While the total number of passes sold for this year’s event is not yet known, organizers are expecting attendance totals to match or exceed pre-COVID numbers. That means more than 20,000 farmers and other visitors will likely fill the five halls that comprise the exhibition facility.

Those visitors can expect to see hundreds of featured displays covering a wide range of crop input and production products and services from a host of major and regional farm equipment manufacturers.

Nufarm Information Theatre

One of the most popular venues at the Crop Production Show each year is the Nufarm Information Theatre, which will be hosting several information sessions during this year’s four-day event. The sessions are must-attend events and won’t be available to view online.

Title sponsor Nufarm Canada will be hosting a daily session on what pulse crops want to tell us about aphanomyces and fusarium. The sessions will review tools and strategies to manage aphanomyces and fusarium root rot in peas and lentils. The sessions will be hosted by Eric Schick, an agronomist and territory manager for Nufarm, who is also actively involved in helping run his family’s farm in Spring Valley, Sask.

On Jan. 10, lawyer Jon M. Ponath of Felesky Flynn LLP will host a discussion on farm succession planning including basic concepts and recent developments. “I think farm succession planning is such a big thing right now and I think that’s going to be a busy one,” Hurlburt adds.

The following day, Geoff Wilson, a Saskatchewan provincial specialist in apiculture (beekeeping), will provide his expertise on the subject, “Honey Bee Health: A Vital Component of Prairie Farming.” Later in the day, Keith Willoughby, dean of the Edwards School of Business at the University of Saskatchewan, will conduct a discussion on supply chain management titled, “The Year the World Ran Out of Everything: Wherefore Art Thou, Supply Chain Management.”

The Nufarm Theatre sessions will wrap up on Jan. 12. Graham Parsons, a provincial pollinator biosecurity specialist, will offer his outlook on pollinators in the agricultural landscape. He will be followed by Cory Jacob, a provincial specialist for oilseed crops with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, who will present an update on canola, flax and mustard crops for 2022 including information on production and disease surveys.

Special occasion

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Crop Production Show. Hurlburt says organizers will celebrate the occasion with a special door prize draw. The winner will receive a free trip for two to Las Vegas, Nev., along with spending money. In addition, 10 exhibitors will receive special commemorative plaques to recognize four decades of participation in the show.

The 2023 Crop Production Show will be open Jan. 9 from noon until 6 p.m. On Jan. 10 and 11, it will be open both days from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It wraps up Jan. 12 and will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. that day. One-day passes are available for $20 per person while two-day passes can be purchased for $36. Free parking will be available at Prairieland Park and heated shuttle service from the parking lot to the front door will be offered.

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All systems are go for the Jan. 10-13, 2022, event, which was first launched nearly 40 years ago, says Lori Cates, show manager.

“After a lot of things have been shut down for the better part of two years due to COVID, I think everyone is just excited to be back,” says Cates. All visitors will need to follow provincial COVID protocols, which requires them to show proof of full vaccination (or a negative test) and face masks must be worn while at the event.

In this 39th year of the show’s history, the Crop Production Show, held at the World Trade Center Saskatoon at Prairieland Park, hopes to attract about 22,000 farmers and visitors over the four days of the show. Nearly 350 exhibitors are expected to fill the four main halls of the exhibition facility.

Along with many of the major and regional farm equipment manufacturers, the show also features hundreds of displays covering a wide range of crop input and production products and services.

Nufarm theatre speakers

Along with the trade show area, there are several information sessions and agriculture industry meetings during the three days of the show. At the Nufarm Information Theatre, farmers will be able to attend five different speaker presentations on several topics.

Graham Collier, who oversees new product concepts and developments for a wide range of Nufarm crop protection products, will give a daily talk on managing kochia. Collier, who also farms near Alliance in east-central Alberta, will present the topic, “Kochia sucks! Integrating soil active herbicides into your weed management program.”

Also at the Nufarm Theatre, there will be an update on work carried out on the Lake Diefenbaker Irrigation Project announced in 2020. There will also be a video presentation developed by the Resistant Wild Oat Action Committee, featuring farmers talking about how they manage wild oat resistance.

Keith Willoughby of the University of Saskatchewan will give a presentation on supply chain management and how to improve efficiencies between the farm, field and factory. And Chris Baker, with the Global Institute for Food Security, will talk about using innovation to advance sustainable food security. A detailed schedule on all of these presentations can be found on the Crop Production Show website at www.cropproductiononline.com.

And along with the presentations at the Nufarm Theatre, the Crop Production Show also hosts two other programs, Crop Production Week and CropSphere, which offer a full schedule of commodity group annual general meetings, as well as market outlook sessions on most of those commodities. Some of those meetings will be held at Prairieland Park, some will be held downtown at TCU Place and some will be virtual, online presentations. Again, for times and locations of these meetings, visit www.cropproductiononline.com and click on “Schedule.”

The 2022 Crop Production Show is open Jan. 10 from 12 p.m. until 6 p.m. On Jan. 11-12 the show is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And on Jan. 13, the show runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission for a one-day pass is $18 per person and $32 per person for a two-day pass and group rates are also available. Parking is free at Prairieland Park, and if anyone needs a ride or it is a cold day for walking, heated shuttle bus service is available from the parking lot to the front door.

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